System and method for virtual interface failover within a cluster

A cluster of data storage system nodes, each node comprising:

• a replication database service;
• and
• a virtual interface (VIF) manager in communication with the replication database service;
• the replication database service including a VIF assignment table and a set of failover rules for each of a plurality of VIFs in the cluster;
• and
• a failover process designating one of the VIF managers in the cluster as coordinator, wherein the coordinator publishes a revised VIF assignment table according to the failover rules in response to a VIF failure, the publication being performed by a single read-write transaction, wherein each VIF manager of each node affected by the published revised VIF hosting assignments hosts VIFs without performing additional RW transactions.

A system for managing virtual interface (VIF) failover comprising:

• a VIF manager instance on each node of a network cluster, wherein one of the VIF managers is designated as coordinator;
• a set of VIF failover rules for all VIFs in the cluster to each VIF manager via a replication database (RDB) service;
• means for using a single read-write (RW) transaction of the RDB service by the coordinator to publish revised VIF hosting assignments pursuant to the VIF failover rules in response to a VIF failure;
• and
• means for hosting VIFs by affected nodes pursuant to the published revised VIF hosting assignments without performing additional RW transactions by any VIF manager instance in the cluster unless an affected node cannot host VIFs pursuant to the published revised VIF hosting assignments.

A computer readable medium containing executable program instructions executed by a processor, comprising:

• program instructions that configure a virtual interface (VIF) failover manager instance on each node of a cluster, wherein one of the VIF managers is designated as coordinator;
• program instructions that provide a set of VIF failover rules for all VIFs in the cluster to each VIF manager via a replication database (RDB) service;
• program instructions that use a single read-write (RW) transaction of the RDB service by the coordinator to publish revised VIF hosting assignments pursuant to the VIF failover rules in response to a VIF failure;
• and
• program instructions that host, by each VIF manager of each node affected by the published revised VIF hosting assignments, VIFs pursuant to the published revised VIF hosting assignments without performing additional RW transactions by any VIF manager instance in the cluster unless an affected node cannot host VIFs pursuant to the published revised VIF hosting assignments.

A method for managing virtual interfaces (VIFs) comprising:

• providing a VIF manager instance on a plurality of network elements, wherein one of the VIF managers is designated as coordinator;
• providing a set of VIF failover rules for VIFs in the network to the VIF managers via a replication database (RDB) service;
• using a single read-write RDB transaction by the coordinator to publish revised VIF hosting assignments pursuant to the VIF failover rules in response to a VIF failure and implement hosting of VIFs according to the revised hosting assignments;
• and
• using read-only RDB transactions, without using any additional read-write RDB transactions, to respond to the revised VIF hosting assignments.

A method for managing virtual interface (VIF) failover comprising:

• publishing failover rules in a replicated database;
• using read-only RDB transactions to respond to the publication of failover rules;
• and
• moving failover enabled data VIFs to an available network port specified in a failover rule in response to a node suffering a failure.

A method for managing virtual interfaces (VIFs) comprising:

• providing a VIF manager instance on each node of a cluster, wherein one of the VIF managers is designated as coordinator;
• providing a set of VIF failover rules for all VIFs in the cluster to each VIF manager via a replication database (RDB) service;
• using a first single read-write (RW) transaction of the RDB service by the coordinator to publish revised VIF hosting assignments pursuant to the VIF failover rules in response to a VIF failure and to host VIFs by the affected nodes pursuant to the published VIF hosting assignments;
• in response to an affected node being unable to host VIFs pursuant to the published revised VIF hosting assignments, utilizing a second single RW transaction of the RDB service by a VIF manager on the affected node to publish new revised VIF hosting assignments pursuant to the VIF failover rules;
• and
• hosting VIFs by affected nodes pursuant to the published new revised VIF hosting assignments.

A method for managing virtual interfaces (VIFs) comprising:

• providing a VIF manager instance on each node of a cluster, wherein one of the VIF managers is designated as coordinator, and the VIF managers comprise an RDB quorum;
• deactivating, by a particular VIF manager, VIFs hosted by the particular VIF manager when the particular VIF manager drops out of quorum;
• providing a set of VIF failover rules for all VIFs in the cluster to each VIF manager via a replication database (RDB) service;
• and
• using a single read-write (RW) transaction of the RDB service by the coordinator to publish revised VIF hosting assignments pursuant to the VIF failover rules in response to a VIF failure and to host VIFs by the affected nodes pursuant to the published VIF hosting assignments.

A cluster of data storage system nodes, each node comprising:

• a replication database service;
• a virtual interface (VIF) manager in communication with the replication database service;
• the replication database service including a VIF assignment table and a set of failover rules for each of a plurality of VIFs in the cluster;
• and
• a failover process designating one of the VIF managers in the cluster as coordinator, wherein the coordinator publishes a revised VIF assignment table according to the failover rules in response to a VIF failure using a first single-read write transaction, wherein each VIF manager performs new VIF hosting responsibilities in response to the revised VIF management table, and in response to a VIF manager being unable to perform its new hosting responsibility, a new revised VIF assignment table is published by the VIF manager using a second single read-write transaction of the RDB service.